Objectives: Frailty is a common and important concern of the ageing population. This study examined the association between the frailty index and negative outcomes of hospitalised elderly Chinese patients.
Design: Retrospective cohort study.
Setting: Geriatrics Department of Peking University First Hospital.
Participants: 470 hospitalised elderly patients.
Main outcomes and measures: Frailty was measured using a 30-item deficit-accumulation frailty index. The outcomes were the hospitalisation duration and readmission.
Results: The frailty index was available for 470 patients: 72 (15.32%) were categorised as robust, 272 (57.87%) as prefrail and 126 (26.81%) as frail. The frail group had a longer hospital stay than the robust and prefrail groups. After adjustment for age, sex and cause of hospitalisation at baseline, frailty remained a strong independent risk factor for all-cause readmission and cardiocerebrovascular disease readmission (HR 2.41, 95% CI 1.49 to 3.91, p<0.001; HR 4.92, 95% CI 1.47 to 6.31, p<0.001, respectively).
Conclusions: The frailty index predicted a longer length of stay and higher all-cause and cardiocerebrovascular disease readmission risk in hospitalised elderly patients.
Keywords: Aged; Frailty; Hospitalization; Risk management.
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